My God, look at these common core work sheets.. I didn't understand all the fuss until I googled it myself.

this is the first time I've ever seen these. thank you for posting.

I'm not a shill, and I'm certainly not for any kind of agenda but, I don't see the problem, here. as a kid, I would have understood this and, gotten the right answers. I only looked at a few of the examples, though, so I'm still not well-informed.

like I said, though, I would have understood this and learned from it. I am very smart; at age 12 my I.Q. was 141.

maybe I have an advantage?

The problem is more pervasive. For instance funding is based on test scores. This results in lots of attention being focused on the things on the standardized test and not a well rounded education. The children literally are being taught to pass the standardized tests foremost and actual education is taking a secondary role.

The way it plays out is very different than how it is presented.

My son is in third grade. I don't really see a problem with the sheets or different methods to try to teach math--although some of them seem rather convoluted.

My biggest problem, and his, is that they rush through everything. He's in third grade and is already learning division and simple algebra BUT he still adds by counting on his fingers.

Back in my day (lo, those many many years ago), they spent almost a year on just addition and beat it into your head until it was second nature. You couldn't hear "3 plus 7" without immediately thinking "10." Then, almost another whole year on multiplication until it was all memorized thoroughly also.

My son went from addition to subtraction to fractions in a matter of months in 2nd grade, and now multiplication, division, and simple algebra in another few months in 3rd grade.

With no time to let anything absorb, and without a beat-it-into-you rote memorization technique, he still doesn't know his addition tables, much less multiplication tables.

These worksheets don't appear to have the crazy inconsistencies and useless terminological overhead of some other examples I've seen. Looks pretty much like what I would've done in 2nd-5th grade back in the dark ages.

Our educational system is swept by a new fad every few years. Common core is just another one.

My view? The math instruction of the 1950s educated a generation of engineers and scientists who got us to the moon! For goodness sake what else do you want? Just f'ing teach the basics and we'll all be fine. Some kids are smart and will make the necessary connections and become math experts. The vast majority will simply be proficient, and that's fine.

Drilling and rote practice is exactly what works with young children. They enjoy that stuff and their brains are not ready for abstractions. It's no accident that algebra and geometry are traditionally taught to young adolescents.

Teachers are, for the most part, weak minded. That is why they are prey to fads. The old saying is still true: "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach."

Those who can't teach, teach gym...

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
THIS x 10000000

See my note that posted right after yours.

My daughter had the same experience. When I asked teachers why they did this, they said "Oh we will revisit all these topics at a later time." They may revisit them but it's just as shallow the second time around, and the third.

Plus, in addition to not teaching kids that effortless computation on which all higher math is based, they're also teaching them to have ADHD and not focus on anything for long, because the teachers themselves appear to have ADHD and are unable to focus.

It's sad. My daughter had 10 days in 4th grade to learn long division and somehow missed it. She figured it out later on her own and now has a degree in economics which required a modicum of math including calculus. But no thanks to her elementary school teachers.

One more thing:

My conjecture is that someone in the common core cabal heard that charming story about the young Carl Friedrich Gauss, who as a 7-year-old solved the simple addition problem (sum all numbers 1 to 100) in an ingenius way.

These numbskulls concluded that every American child must be taught to think like a mathematical genius. It really gets my blood boiling when idiots are given power over such a precious resource: our children.

Exactly. I hear that, too--"We'll come back to it..."

When??!

Why should you have to "come back" to simple addition in the fifth, sixth, ninth grade?

The only thought that keeps me from really going down there and telling them what I think about all this is that when he is older, they will probably have tiny thought-controlled super-computers implanted in their forearms or something and won't have to do math in their heads!

(I kid, of course...)

Before I post this, I'm totally pro-math.

Perhaps its b/c they know they'll be using the new calculator, aka, the cell phone, to do most of the work for them later in life.

Think back to when you were in school. Did you ever wish there was a faster way to do it b/c you knew how to do it but lets say your brain processed things too fast and you missed a step.

Or another take on it is, were you good in math or did you just have a good memory? Maybe its better to learn the skills on how to figure it out.

Or maybe your sons just slow :P

the idea is to dumb the kids down. That makes them more susceptible to propaganda.

Math is not just about adding and subtracting. It is also about critical thinking and logic.

If a child fails to master one, he/she fails to master the others.

Math informs and describes every aspect of our reality.

Its so simple.If it works,dont fix it.

Funny that some random parent on the internet can see this as a problem yet its a worsening one. They are NOT teaching math, at all. They are teaching THE WAY AROUND MATH.

Monkey math. Counting on fingers is all our grandchildren will be capable of.

One of the top topics on the ballot is school reform. Common Core is hugely unpopular-legislatures have to get rid of it, though:

[link to www.wbtw.com]

They’re both also against “federal intervention” in state schools, specifically the Common Core Standards. But state lawmakers passed a bill this year to review the standards next year, meaning the superintendent can’t do anything about Common Core on her own.

"You're always working with the state Board of Education and Oversight Committee, so we'll see,” Atwater says.

Spearman says, "The legislature has really settled the issue and they have said that the next state superintendent, that will be your number one priority. They answered the question for us and said that there will be an immediate review and we will put in place South Carolina standards

So push your state legislature to eliminate common core, the school board is helpless.

I wonder how well this would work with math problems that are written, don't really see this working for it.

I was doing the written math in the first and second grade, that was a good 53 yeas ago or more.

Follow the money. You say it relies on testing....

WHO gets paid the untold billions to conduct said testing?

Hmm. This 4th grade one about making change seems okay to me. Thing is depending on the work they would show I guess would determine how it was taught.

[link to www.commoncoresheets.com]

It is interesting because there are two worksheets. One does not provide possible answers. The "modified" one does. The modified one geared to teaching a child to fill in the right circle in the standardized tests. Where the money goes is determined by those scores. In the last two decades the public school system has been about getting the highest scores. The higher the scores the more money the school gets.

The Charter system has become a system of abuse in some ways. Some Charters are teaching things way worse than anything in the core. Using both public and private funds.

And what do they really do with the results?

I have never seen anything so cumbersome and banal peddled as "education".

Can you put up a worksheet url so we can see which one is confusing. I just did a quick poke around and so far, I see nothing earth shattering (yet). Thanks!

People who learn math can understand fiat currencies, trade imbalances, national debt, crony capitalism, NAFTA, international banking, war financing, and the infinite black hole known as entitlements and welfare.

They are a threat to the statist cabal, and must be dumbed down.

There is a core group of PhDs who developed Common Core.

WHO ARE THEY? We need to know who these people are

You were confused by those worksheets? Really? Wow! They are written for first graders.

I don't see a problem with these worksheets. Looks like basic math to me. I hope the current crop of teachers know enough basic math to be able to teach it.

I'm suspecting that common core is dumbed down math.

High School Geometry, for example. My two older kids struggled through it - this was before common core. I even had to get tutors for them. This year my youngest took Geometry, with common core, and got through no problems. I kept asking her, "are you understanding everything?" all throughout the year. And she would say, yes. So, either common core is superior, or, as I expect, they have dumbed everything down. And, no, she wasn't any smarter than her siblings to start with. My eldest even graduated college with an Applied Math degree & still had trouble with Geometry back in high school before all this common core.

SAT and ACT are based on common core. It's all about $$$

I work in a store and you should see the amount of "teens" who cant even add up the exact or close to exact CHANGE


I mean handing me 2 dimes and a quarter for 34 cent charge?

One handed me 2$ in quarters for something that was 1.41$

I know it wasn't just a mistake either because when I hand them money back they are surprised and say "sorry didn't know" 90% of the time.

That is what i was thinking.
It seems much easier than the ways we were taught(38 yr old).

as if it were math for dummies.

Like someone above stated, probably just another way to dumb down society.

I bought breakfast at a fast food place a few days ago. A nice, articulate young man took my order. It came to $4.89. I gave him a $5 bill. He muttered something under his breath, took out a pocket calculator, and hit some numbers. Then he gave me 11 cents change.

Turned out, he had rung 'no change' into the cash register so it didn't tell him
how much change to give back. So he turned to his pocket calculator instead.
To figure out what the difference between $4.89 and $5.00 was.

However math is being taught, it's not working !